


Nightmares

by imgoingtocrash



Series: Pepperony Week 2019 [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Domestic Fluff, During the five year gap, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Mid-Endgame, Nightmares, Pepperony Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 22:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20143159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgoingtocrash/pseuds/imgoingtocrash
Summary: At four years old, Morgan has decided she’s too old for nightmares. Then she hears her father having one and comes to understand that sometimes we don't always get to choose how we react to our dreams.





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Pepperony Week Day 4! For the Morgan Stark prompt, I decided on something that also fills in another box on my [Bad Things Happen Bingo Card](https://imgoingtocrash.tumblr.com/post/186828170824/nightmares). (But no worries, it's all emotional comfort and fluff here, folks!)
> 
> Enjoy!

Morgan is of the opinion that she’s too old for nightmares.

Neither of her parents have so much as said a word to support this theory. She just decided, one night, not to call out for Mommy and Daddy in response to the haunting image of a knife-wielding doll (Chucky, from the movie,) chasing her around in the forest that surrounds their house. The forest is normally not very scary, because she’s brave and a big girl, and she’d sleep out there in her tent at night all by herself if only Mommy and Daddy would let her, but in this dream it was.

The fact that it was Chucky chasing Morgan around is getting old, actually. Daddy had shown her that movie _months_ ago, even though Mommy yelled at him for it later, and she’d already had three bad dreams about him that were almost all exactly the same.

(“Barton said his daughter used to watch shit like that all the time as a kid!” Daddy defended, not clipping his curses because he wasn’t aware that Morgan was listening intently at the top of the stairs. "And it's not like I knew she was behind me!"

“Just because Hawkeye’s daughter has—_had_ a strange fascination with creepy stuff doesn’t mean you should watch an R-rated horror movie while our _four-year-old _is still awake," Mommy argued. 

If Morgan wouldn’t have gotten in trouble for listening in instead of sleeping, that was when Morgan would have defended that she was almost five, thank you very much.)

For the most part, Morgan's idea works. Daddy doesn’t get Mommy’s very Special Mad Look For Dad Only because she had a nightmare about the movie again, and Morgan learns to deal with her boring old nightmares all by herself by just deciding to go back to sleep.

Except, well. If _she’s_ too old for nightmares, she’s not sure what to make of the noise that wakes her from a dead sleep one night. It’s not a noise she’s used to—deer sometimes walk around by the lake, squirrels run around in the tree branches near her bedroom window in the early morning—all normal things when they live outside of the big city where Mommy works most of the time.

Instead, this noise sounds almost pained—like when she’s playing soccer outside and the dewy morning grass makes her slip and fall when she means to kick. Daddy will run outside to check on her in a matter of seconds when she makes a noise like that, and she’ll only get to go back to playing if Miss FRIDAY, the robot lady, tells him that she’s okay.

So, naturally, such a noise coming from her parents’ bedroom, only a closed door away, makes her crawl out of bed, bare feet warm and slightly sticky against the cold hardwood floor. She brings her favorite stuffed puppy, the only kind of dog Mommy will currently approve—though she and Daddy are trying to wear her down. Maybe one of her parents will need the comfort. (It’s definitely not to fight her own fear, the uncertainty of what she might find.)

Morgan opens her bedroom door, slow and making sure the knob doesn’t click and the hinges don’t squeak. The house is pretty new, according to her dad, but parts of the house still shift around at times, especially if Morgan is looking not to get caught doing something she shouldn’t. She’s not sure if this little trip qualifies, but she walks with the softest, tiny footsteps she can manage in the dark.

“Oh, Tony,” her mother says, that tone of voice the same one that soothes Morgan’s sick coughs and wipes her tears on her very pretty and fancy blouses. “I know, honey, I know.”

“God,” Daddy says. Morgan can barely recognize his voice. It’s so…stuffy, maybe? She wonders if Daddy maybe caught a bug, like Morgan did a few months ago. “Shit, he was _right there_, Pep, and I—I’m trying so hard to move on, but he’s still—right there in front of me and I can’t do—”

Morgan doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but she interrupts her dad’s next words of “I just wish I’d stop—“ by opening their bedroom door with an audible click that must get their attention.

“Morgan?” Mommy asks, sitting up from where she was lying down next to Daddy. “What’s wrong?” Her mother looks between Morgan and her father, almost like she’s not sure which to address first.

Morgan walks up to her parents’ bed, pulling herself up onto the mattress before burrowing herself into her mom’s side, Daddy’s eyes watching her in the dimmed light of their bedroom. He doesn’t sit up, but his hand rests on her pajama leg. The touch is comforting, but Morgan wonders if it’s just her own worry for her parents, or if he’s actually shaking a little.

“I heard a noise,” Morgan says, petting her puppy’s long, flopping ears. She’d considered asking for a stuffed bunny last Christmas, but something about the request had made her mom roll her eyes at her dad, and despite not knowing exactly what it meant, she’d decided on a puppy in the end.

Her dad groans, the hand that was on her leg going to cover his eyes. “Now I’m scaring _her_ too. Great.”

“None of that,” her mom scolds, her tone light. She reaches around Morgan to run her hand through Daddy’s hair. Mommy looks to Morgan, eyes going up and down like she’s deciding something in her head before she says “Daddy had a nightmare, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” her dad apologizes, clearing his throat. “You know what that’s like, though, huh?”

“No!” Morgan pouts. “I’m too old for nightmares, Daddy!”

Her parents exchange a look, eyes wide and moving as if they’re actually speaking. Morgan’s not sure how they do that, but she knows it mostly happens around her.

“Who told you that?” Mommy asks, worry creeping into her question.

“Nobody,” Morgan answers. “I just 'cided it.”

Her dad gives her mom another look, this one a little funny. “Was it that easy this whole time? And you never told me?”

“Tony,” Mommy chides, addressing her dad before she adjusts Morgan down to lie between the two of them. “All kinds of people have nightmares, honey. Sometimes our brain doesn’t let us decide not to have them, we just do.”

“And you can’t not be scared?”

“I wish,” Daddy grumbles. He sniffs, turning Morgan over to look at him, his hand on her hair. “Sometimes, things just get stuck in our heads. Just like with Chucky. Or when you saw that goldfish upside down at the carnival. It was really sad, and you said you couldn’t stop seeing it until we did something so fun that you weren’t as sad anymore.”

“We went on the ferris wheel three whole times!”

“We did.”

“Do you need to go on a ferris wheel, Daddy?”

“Ha.” He shakes his head. “Sometimes it isn’t that simple. Do know what I dreamed about tonight?”

Morgan shakes her head.

“I tell you about Peter all the time. About how much I miss him, and I wish he could have met you. And sometimes I see him in my dreams and it makes me want to see him again, but I can’t.” Daddy gets a sad look on his face that Morgan is used to—remembering all of the people who went away before she was even born. He recovers quickly, holding Morgan’s hands in his own. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to keep being sad forever just because Peter’s not here anymore. I wake up and have you and your mom and our life, and I’m so happy that I think I’m gonna burst. It makes things better, just like riding the ferris wheel made you feel better.”

“Sometimes getting over nightmares takes a long time,” Mommy adds, cuddling up against Morgan’s back, lying her arm around Morgan’s stomach, the three of them like a big Stark sandwich. “But your dad tells me about every single one, because then I can help him feel better, even if it’s just a little by giving him lots of hugs and kisses.”

Morgan nods, considerate. She doesn’t want her Daddy to have bad dreams, but she knows that you don’t really get control of what you dream about. (Otherwise, her dreams would be all puppies and riding around in Daddy’s Iron Man armor while eating unlimited Moose Tracks ice cream.) So, even though she was able to get over Chucky pretty quickly, he might be having dreams that he can’t get over so easily, and she feels sad for him about that.

Morgan slides forward, her puppy held out to be placed in her father’s arms. Instead he pushes himself closer, wrapping his arm over Morgan’s shoulders so that he touches her mother too.

“See?” he says. “I have both of you right here. Better already.”

“Are you sure?” Morgan asks, eyes getting heavy as her breaths match up with the weight of her mother’s behind her.

“Yeah, Morgan,” he says, eyes open and looking at her mother over Morgan’s head. “I think I’m gonna be okay.”

(When Morgan wakes in the morning, her parents are both awake and in the kitchen, drinking coffee and talking softly. Her dad looks tired, like the nightmares wore him out despite her presence the night before, but he picks her up, kisses her, and asks her how she wants her eggs with a smile so wide Morgan has to believe it. 

Just to be sure, Morgan gives him plenty of thank-you kisses and makes sure to be extra quiet when he falls asleep on the couch later in the afternoon.)

**Author's Note:**

> The whole Chucky thing was 100% inspired by some friends I had as a kid who were into horror movies. Just talking about that movie and looking at pictures of it freaked me out. I don't do horror movies, and I stick by that decision.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Remember to check out the rest of my works for Pepperony Week if you want! All kudos/comments/etc. are appreciated!


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